As Scotland prepares for another vote on independence from the U.K. amid the fog of Brexit, a Canadian author has proposed a radical solution – invite Scotland to join Canada as its official 11th province.
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Ken McGoogan has argued, in print, that 4.7 million Canadians claim to have Scottish heritage and that country’s cultural influences are already deeply ingrained in Canada.
“It makes sense because we’re already so closely linked,” he told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday. “We have more of Scotland in us, more of a concentration than any other country.”
The author said Scotland’s population of 5.3 million would make it the third largest province by population.
McGoogan explained that Scotland would have a greater say in Canada than it does in the U.K., because it would represent 12.6 per cent of the total Canadian population of 41.8 million as opposed to only 8 per cent of the 65 million Brits.
“All Canadian provinces have more power, more independence and autonomy than Scotland has right now,” McGoogan said. “We know how to accommodate difference and we could easily accommodate the Scots.”
As for any potential concerns some may have about the actual physical distance separating the two countries?
McGoogan said it’s not a concern in this day and age with new communication technologies and air travel. He cited the U.S. as an example of why location shouldn’t be an issue by comparing California’s distance from Hawaii (3,977 km) to Newfoundland’s distance to Scotland (3,355 kilometres).
